Wednesday, June 28, 2006

SWIFT complaints in 32 nations

Privacy International has filed complaints in 32 countries against SWIFT's wholesale transfer of banking records to the US government. SWIFT daily routes $6 trillion between almost 8,000 financial institutions worldwide:

"Swift appears to have violated data protection rules in Europe," [Simon] Davies said, "by making these transfers without the consent of the individuals involved and without the approval of European judicial or administrative authorities. The scale of the operation, involving millions of records, places this disclosure in the realm of a fishing exercise rather than a legally authorized investigation."